In times of catastrophic events such as earthquakes, floods, fires, radiation/hazardous material leaks, and even the terrorist activity as seen on 9/11, when entire grids of power, cell/telephone, electrical systems, communication systems, and other internal systems/services to the structure and on the site may be interrupted, pre-wired systems could also be damaged, and further impede the progress of location tracking of personnel or objects even though existing location tracking systems should be present. In these situations, the first responder groups provide law enforcement, safety, and protection services to the public. The first responder groups include organizations and law enforcement officers/personnel like police, sheriff, FBI, DEA, military personnel, highway patrol, detectives, special law enforcement groups, border patrol, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, Red Cross personnel, and other emergency workers.
The work of first responder groups is very challenging. During the catastrophic events, the first responder groups have the responsibility to respond quickly and effectively in order to save life, property/assets of people. The life, health of personnel responding to catastrophic events is always on danger because in these situations, without an effective location tracking and communication system, it is very difficult for the first responder group to track exact locations effectively and quickly while providing law enforcement, safety, and protection services to the public. Therefore, it is very necessary for first responder group to correctly identify and maneuver through the site (may include, building structures and the like) efficiently, and also knowing the structural integrity and material construction of the building, for example, in strategic personnel extraction activities (usually planned outside the site), if there is a choice between a steel wall and a plaster wall, which should be used as an escape route. Further, all stairwells, elevators, access point locations, and possible exit points within the structure that could accommodate basic duties, rescue operations, and personnel extraction, will be evident on the architectural drawings and first responder group should also have a system for real time ubiquitous communication between all first responder groups.
Therefore, it is very important to provide enough real time and accurate information to first responder personnel in order to assist them in strategic planning initiatives so that they could make more intelligent decisions before entering any structure during a catastrophe or other event. Attempts have been made in the prior arts to provide location tracking systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,882 discloses a personnel accountability system that accounting for personnel reporting to a site. The personnel accountability system includes an information receiving device, a processor, and a display. The information receiving device is provided for receiving information from a data storage device carried by the personnel or from the personnel directly. The received information pertains to the personnel, and may include identification, qualification, and/or medical information. Upon receiving the data, the system subsequently stores and displays the received information. This system may also be used to receive information regarding a site.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,769 discloses a method and apparatus for using RFID tags to determine the position of an object. During operation, the system receives signals from an array of RFID tags at an RFID tag reader, wherein a mask of known size and shape is interposed between the array of RFID tags and the RFID tag reader, thereby obscuring signals from a subset of the RFID tags. Next, the system determines the position of the object by analyzing the pattern of obscured RFID tags, wherein the analysis is based on a known spatial relationship between the object, the mask and the array of RFID tags.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,010 discloses a centralized real-time multi-location management system that manages the exchange of location-level service data to a central server and also provides a secure firewall for the location-level systems through a network transceiver at each property. The network transceiver receives data from the location-level service and transmits and receives the data to and from the remote central server. At the central server, each property's data are integrated into a central database for use by a variety of central application services accessible by users through thin-client user interfaces.
United States Patent Application No. 20050001720 discloses a Firefighter Automated Accountability System (FAAS). This system supports automatic tracking and limited communications among first responders including fire, police, emergency medical service, and safety personnel. The FAAS integrate wireless mesh networks with positioning and communication systems to support real-time tracking of and communications with emergency response personnel. The FAAS incident awareness system provides position and time information via Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or other positioning systems, and processed data from sensors to provide enhanced communications, command and control capabilities to the first responders and incident command at the incident scene.
The prior arts/conventional systems have several limitations and disadvantages. While accomplishing specific objectives, prior arts do not provide adequate location tracking systems for: making intelligent decisions regarding the specific structures for deploying efficient activities within the structures; tracking and maintaining locations of rescue personnel, at a real time basis, for accountability, information, and decision making purposes; and real time ubiquitous communications between all first responder groups.
Therefore, there exist a need for a system for: tracking, maintaining, and communicating exact locations of first responder/rescue personnel at a real time basis; improving first responder/rescue personnel safety and ability to fight the catastrophic events/emergency situations more effectively by providing adequate and accurate information to them so that they could make more intelligent decisions before and after entering any structure during a catastrophe or other event.